


The Assassin's Court

by FeyreGrace44



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2018-10-30 09:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10873923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeyreGrace44/pseuds/FeyreGrace44
Summary: When Magic returns, what can one assassin do against the rising tensions between the courts. With only a child, royalty and her magic beside her, she must bring a little humanity to world of immortals. While she fights her own battle, more rage and it seems as if her task will never be over.





	1. Before: Part 1

The blood from the wound in my head pooled beneath me. My broken left wrist sent shooting pains up my arm. I turned over onto my hand and knees and spat coppery blood onto the floor. I stood slowly, lifted my head to look at the man across from me and survey the situation. Six of my twelve throwing arrows were lying useless behind him on the cobbled street and both of my twelve inch daggers lay by his feet. There was a deep cut through the heavy cotton of my riding pants. I could feel the blood running down my leg and I was breathing heavily. The man across from me was glaring at me, almost grinning, teeth bared, uninjured except for a trickle of blood from the thin cut across his right cheekbone. He was easily six feet tall and his muscles rippled through his shirt. As I watched, his ears and canines extended into points and the air crackled. Fae. Of course he was. Trust Caulan to send me for a Fae. I dropped into a crouch. Lightning cracked. I let my eyes go to wildfire, irises turning bronze, canines extending and ears turning into points. My breathing calmed, the injuries I had sustained began to heal. In seconds, the pain had numbed to being bearable. Still crouched, feral, I pulled the six inch knife out of my right calf-length leather boot. I flipped it between my fingers, grinned, allowed myself to close my eyes. I knew he would charge. Moments before he hit me, I snarled, leapt for his shoulder, too fast to see, and drove my knife in. The momentum made him stagger back and I clung, legs around his waist and twisted my knife in further. He fell, screaming like a child, to the ground, writhing on his back. I left my knife in his shoulder, collected my arrows and daggers from the floor. Then I turned back to him. He was trying desperately to grip the handle of my knife, though it was slippery with his own blood. Any trace of humanity was gone, he was a creature of rage and pain and I was not afraid. I pulled my knife out replacing it with one of my daggers. I plunged my other dagger into his unharmed shoulder and he screamed again as I leant on them, pushing them into the street beneath him. He wouldn't give me any more information. He didn't need to. I slid my finger down the flat of my blade into the hole I had made in his skin. He screamed endlessly. I turned to walk away. Stopping metres from his feet. I took a single arrow out of the quiver on my back and threw it, with nothing more than a flick of the wrist, into the exact centre of his throat. Blood gurgled up through the hole I had made and his breath escaped him. A second later, with another arrow through his brain, he was dead. I cursed myself for being so overly dramatic. I went over again, pulled both my daggers out of his shoulders, wiped them on his shirt and sheathed them at my sides. I picked up my knife which still lay next to him and wiped that too, replacing it in my boot. I pulled both my arrows out of him, cleaned them briefly and put them back in the quiver. I picked up my cloak off the floor of the alleyway, dusted it off, put it on and pulled up the hood. I reigned in, calmed my eyes, ears and teeth forcing them back to the dullness of human senses. With the return of humanity came pain. My wrist throbbed most of all. I mounted up and walked my horse slowly back to the house.


	2. Before: Part 2

The men on the gate nodded to me as I slipped in, sliding off Alia and throwing her reigns to Aaron as I went past. I unlocked and entered through the grand front doors and closed the door silently behind me. I pulled my hood down and stood in the entrance looking at the stairs. Exhaustion kicked in as I climbed up and entered my bedroom. I got in and slumped down against the door. A creamy white card with a dried leaf on it sat on my bed. I glared at it for a moment before getting up and reading it. 'My office, as soon as you get back.' Despite my exhaustion, I hurried down to Caulan's office. I straightened my dark grey tunic and knocked once.  
"Enter." I went in. The room was dark and Caulan's face was in shadow, though I had seen it often enough. His dark green eyes were the only things that shone out from under his dark brown hood. His light brown hair was short under the hood and his strong features would be covered by and elaborate mask covered in green and brown jewels. His ears would be pointed, he never bothered to hide his Fae features. Strapped to his back were two magnificent double-edged copper and iron axes, with handles coved in the same jewels.  
"How did it go?" I frowned. Caulan was never interested in my business unless it was important.  
"Fine. Why?" Despite the darkness, I could see the frustration on his masked, hooded face. "Never mind. It would have been nice if you'd bothered to let me know he was Fae."  
"I knew you could deal with him. What are your injuries?" I sighed, this was always the worst part of our occasional meetings in Caulan's darkened office.  
"Broken wrist, cut to my thigh and a couple of other minor injuries." I knew what would come next.  
"Which wrist?"  
"Left." He snarled.  
"When will you be paid?" I stalked over to his desk and slammed my palms onto it. For a moment, I let the wildfire return and lightning crackle, just to remind him. He saw. In less than two seconds, he held my own knife against my throat in one hand and both my arms behind me in the other hand. He let the knife bite into my skin, letting blood trickle down while he whispered into my ear.  
"I am the Forest Fae Lord. You will do well to remember that in this house, young lady, I am god." He removed the knife from my skin, wiped the blade on my neck and handed it back to me. I was dismissed.

Standing, letting hot water wash over me I sighed. I let myself shift into my Fae form to heal and by the time I got out, everything except my wrist had healed. I threw on a lacy nightgown, sat down and pulled a towel over my legs and set to cleaning my weapons. The copper arrows took twenty minute to clean all twelve. Embedded in each head were red-orange sunstones. I thought about why I had got them. Arrows because of the speed of them, and copper because it was less expensive but it matched my other weapons. My daggers, made of bronze with ivory handles in the shape of lions with sunstones for eyes took longer to clean. They had been my father's most treasured weapons. When they lay shining on the floor next to my arrows, I picked up my dagger. It was definitely my favourite weapon. The double-edged blade was made of bronze, the handle, cream coloured ivory carved to fit my mothers hand exactly. It also happened to fit my hand and was made to match my father's daggers. When I had cleaned and polished it within an inch of it's life, I sharpened all of my weapons and hid everything except my knife away properly.


	3. Before: Part 3

A young woman entered my room, finely dressed and flanked by two burly men. Their burnt-orange jackets were covered in knotted bronze rope, their matching trousers were neatly pressed and hardened bronze swords hung in sheaths on the left hip of their belts. On their right hip lay a long dagger. The woman's dress was peach coloured with a corset pulling in her waist to twenty-four inches. The skirts were also peach coloured with bronze stitched swirls and flowers. Long brown hair was down and draped in peach coloured diamonds. A delicate peach ribbon choker lay around her neck with a single matching diamond at the centre. Bronze, rose-gold and peach-diamond earrings hung from small rounded ears. Human. I couldn't see any weapons on her but, that wasn't to say she didn't have one. I felt insignificant in my nightgown, despite the amount I knew it had costed.  
"Please, sit." I showed her to the rich armchairs. She was unannounced, which meant she was important enough to sweep in without going to Caulan first. She sat primly in the chair, her guards behind her on either side. "May I ask who you are, I'm afraid I don't know you."  
"I am Lady Luana. I am in the court of King Tavan and Queen Never Bronzestar of Arwynia as an attendant to the Princess Kolti Bronzestar. I am here on her command. She wishes to hire you." Her accent had the softness of someone raised in the Arwynian court.  
"Firstly, why didn't she come herself? Secondly, who?"  
"Firstly, she is a princess and does not have time. Secondly, the man she is promised to is a foreign prince and she hates him. She does not want to be married. She is a wild thing you know. She wants him out of the picture and she wants a protecter and companion. She does not trust the men her father has given her. If you can kill this prince, you will be rewarded. I know it is petty." She looked down at her hands.  
"Why should I put my time and effort into it?"  
"You do not know the name of the prince." I sat back in my seat.  
"Go on."  
"Malik Bronzecrest." I heard my own sharp intake of breath.  
"You want me to kill one of the Princes of Atlantia for the youngest Princess of Arwynia. Why precisely do you think I would want to take on a task like that? It is a mission into the hands of death himself."  
“I have heard that you are the best assassin this side of the Sorrian Mountains, though you seem young for your reputation. How old are you?” I got up and out of habit moved towards my blades. Usually at this point, the conversation turned against me.  
“Sixteen. I still don’t see why I should take this mission.” The lady began to speak quickly in Arwynian to her guards. As she spoke, her face set. The guards came at me faster than should be possible given their size and species. It took me only ten seconds to disable them. When they were lying on the ground with their arms behind their backs and my daggers at their necks I looked back up, eyebrows raised. The lady was sitting quite still her face white. Slowly, as the colour returned to her cheeks, she began to smile.  
“Thank you, Erica.” Then calmly she beckoned to her guards and left. I was left staring after her.


End file.
